TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, OCT. 18, the 291st day of 2018. There are 74 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1892, the first long-distance telephone line between New York and Chicago was officially opened. It could handle only one call at a time.
In 1648, Boston shoemakers were authorized to form a guild to protect their interests; it’s the first American labor organization on record.
In 1767, the Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between colonial Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, was set after astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed their survey.
In 1898, the American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the U.S.
In 1931, inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J., at age 84.
In 1944, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II.
In 1962, James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were honored with the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for determining the doublehelix molecular structure of DNA.
In 1968, the U.S. Olympic Committee suspended Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a “black power” salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.
In 1969, the federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.
In 1977, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.
In 1982, former first lady Bess Truman died at her home in Independence, Mo., at age 97.
In 1997, a monument honoring American servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 2001, CBS News announced that an employee in anchorman Dan Rather’s office had tested positive for skin anthrax. Four disciples of Osama bin Laden were sentenced in New York to life without parole for their roles in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Dawn Wells is 80. College and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Mike Ditka is 79. Singermusician Russ Giguere is 75. Actor Joe Morton is 71. Actress Pam Dawber is 68. Author Terry McMillan is 67. Writer-producer Chuck Lorre is 66. Gospel singer Vickie Winans is 65. Director-screenwriter David Twohy is 63. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Martina Navratilova is 62. International Hall of Fame boxer Thomas Hearns is 60. Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is 58. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is 57. Actor Vincent Spano is 56. Rock musician Tim Cross is 52. Former tennis player Michael Stich is 50. Singer Nonchalant is 45. Actress Joy Bryant and rock musician Peter Svenson (The Cardigans) are 44. Actor Wesley Jonathan is 40. Rhythm-and-blues singer-actor Ne-Yo is 39. Country singer Josh Gracin is 38. Country musician Jesse Littleton (Marshall Dyllon) is 37. Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn, jazz singer-musician Esperanza Spalding and actress-model Freida Pinto are 34. Actor Zac Efron is 31. Actress Joy Lauren is 29. TV personality Bristol Palin is 28.